Potensic T25 Drone Review | 1080p GPS Drone

Released recently, the Potensic T25 GPS Drone is an affordably priced camera drone with features for both first-time and experienced drone owners. It comes with a full HD 1080p camera that also captures still photos, built in dual GPS, a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot, a nine-axis gyroscope, LED lights for flying at night, and more amazing features you won’t find on similarly priced drones. When it was first released, the T25 came with only one battery and no carrying case. After the initial reviewers commented that two batteries were needed, Potensic added a second battery. The Potensic T25 in this review also comes with an aluminum carrying case.

The Potensic T25 – an Affordable Drone for Beginning and Experienced Drone Owners

While first time drone owners report successfully flying this drone on the first or second attempt, more experienced pilots also comment that this drone is a favorite.

Potensic T25 Features for New Drone Pilots

Check out the Potensic T25 GPS Drone if you’re looking for a first drone for yourself or your kids. The manufacturer recommends this drone for anyone age 11 or older. The features that make the Potensic T25 an excellent choice for those just learning to pilot a drone include:

A detailed manual with drawings and diagrams which makes the instructions clear and easy to follow

A well-labeled, dual-joystick controller – familiar to those who have played with video game consoles

Three flight speeds – learn to control the drone at the lowest speed and then graduate to higher speeds

One-button take off

Headless flight – the direction of flight forward, backward, right, and left is determined by the position of the controller, not by the direction the drone is facing

Auto land – the drone slows and lands itself which also prevents crashes

The Potensic T25 has features that more experienced drone pilots will appreciate. That means that if you purchase this drone as a beginning pilot, you won’t quickly outgrow it as your piloting skills increase. The more advanced features include:

Normal mode – flight direction is determined by the direction drone is facing

Three flight speeds

Follow Me

GPS lock

LED lights for nighttime flying

Fine tuning of flight responses to controller

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Features Both Beginning and More Advanced Drone Pilots Will Appreciate

Both beginning and advanced drone pilots will appreciate the following features:

A nine-axis gyroscope and altitude hold for stability when filming or taking photos

Automatic return to home (RTH) prevents crashes and loss of the drone

Replacements parts included with the drone

First person view – view the image the from camera on your smart phone in real time

Ability to control the drone and the drone’s camera from the controller or to control the drone from an Android or Apple smart phone or tablet

Video and photos transmitted for storage on your smart phone or tablet and stored on an SD card if one is purchased separately

Drone is highly responsive to controller with little to no lag time

Transmits first person view to 3D VR goggles if goggles are purchased separately

Customize flight paths from a map in the app on your cell phone or tablet

Camera can be detached so that you can mount your sport’s action camera on the T25

Capabilities the Potensic T25 Doesn’t Have

No drone can be all things to all drone owners. Some of the capabilities that the Potensic T25 lacks include:

Indoor flight – this drone is meant for outdoor flight only

Flight in high winds – this is a light weight drone; owners report that it does not fly well in winds above 20 mph

If you are looking for a drone to fly in speed or obstacle course competitions, this is not the drone for you. While the Potensic T25 responds quickly to its controller, smaller indoor drones are built for competition flying.

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What Comes With the T25 and What Doesn’t That You Might Want Immediately

When you open the box, you’ll find the drone and everything that comes with it packed in the aluminum carrying case. Included you’ll find:

Potensic T25 drone with its 1080p HD camera

Controller

Two 3.7 1000mAH batteries

A quick start manual, a more detailed user manual, and a list of precautions to observe

A USB battery charger

Four extra propeller blades

Four extra propeller guards

Two extra landing gears

A screw driver

The flight time for each battery is only seven to eight minutes, so you probably will want to purchase one or two extra batteries.

You also probably will want to purchase an SD card. The drone supports 10 class SD cards from 4 to 32 GB. If an SD card is installed, the drone records video and photos on the SD card as well as on your smart phone or tablet at the same time. The drone will use .avi format on the SD card, but if you have an Apple phone or tablet, it uses .mov format for recording on Apple devices.

All you need to do is place the drone on a level surface, and stand about 5 feet behind the drone. With the push of one button on the controller, the propellers start and the drone automatically lifts off at a safe speed and then hovers when it reaches a height of 5 feet above the ground. As a beginning pilot, you won’t need to learn how to keep the T25 level and flying vertically as it takes off, or about where you want it to fly nest. The drone will hover until you are ready to direct it to where you want it to go.

Automatic Landing

If you are a beginning pilot, you won’t have to learn how to slow the drone and keep it stable and flying vertically as you bring it down to land it. The T25 handles its own landing sequence automatically.

Headless Flight Mode

Instead of using the direction in which the camera points as its frame of reference for interpreting an instruction from the controller to fly left, right, forward, or backward, the T25 uses the position that the controller was in when the drone began its flight.

This is an easy flight mode for you to use if you are a beginning pilot because, since you stand behind the drone when launching it, when the drone is flying away from you, commanding the drone to fly left sends it to your left and commanding it to fly right sends the drone to your right. If you turn the drone to face you and then have it make its return flight toward you, however, you will then have to remember that if you want the drone to fly to your right, you will need to command it to fly left, and if you want it to fly to your left, you will need to command it to fly right. In this situation, it might help to think of the drone as a person who is facing you. That person’s right hand will be opposite your left hand, and that person’s left hand will be opposite your right hand.

To put the drone into headless flight mode, tap twice on the “Return Home” button on the controller.

Normal Flight Mode

Normal flight mode is the default mode for flying a drone. The drone uses its own position to interpret flight direction commands from the controller. Commanding the drone to fly forward causes it to fly in the direction in which the camera is facing. Commanding it to fly backward causes it to back away from the direction the camera is pointing. Commanding it to fly to the right or left causes it to fly to its own right or left. While you do need to keep your eyes on the drone itself to prevent it from flying into a person, animal, or object that’s not within the camera’s field of view, learning to use normal flight mode might be easiest while watching the live view from the drone’s camera on your smart phone, tablet, or 3D VR goggles. If you are going to use your goggles, though, you should have someone else with you to watch the drone and prevent accidental collisions.

GPS Lock and GPS Position and Hold

Normally, the T25 will be locked onto two GPS signals to determine its position. If you want the T25 to hover in a particular position so that you can take still pictures or film some action from a particular angle and distance, you can fly the drone into position, and then have it hold that position and hover in place until you are done shooting or until you want to follow the action.

If you are in a location in which the drone is having difficulty maintaining a lock on a GPS signal, you will see the lights on the back of the drone flashing blue and the lights on the front of the drone flashing white. Normally, these lights will be solid blue and white respectively. You can turn off the GPS by pushing down on the right joystick controller for 2 seconds. With GPS turned off, you control the drone’s position solely with the controller.

Turning off the GPS, however, also turns off functions like GPS Return Home and Low Battery Return Home. When you turn off the GPS, you will need to pay close attention to the distance at which you are flying the drone and the battery levels on both the drone and the controller. If you fly the drone out of the range of the controller’s signal or if the controller’s battery runs low, you will lose control of the drone, and it will continue to fly in the direction you last commanded it to fly until its battery runs low and it crashes. If the drone’s battery runs low before you use the controller to command it to land, it will simply fall out of the sky uncontrolled and crash.

GPS Return Home and Low Battery Return Home

When you have GPS turned on, the T25 uses it to automatically return home, meaning the location from which it took off for its current flight. If you lose sight of your drone, you can, and should, use GPS Return Home to signal the drone to return home. If the drone loses the signal from the controller because you have flown it out of range for the signal, because the controller’s battery is low, or because something is interfering with the signal, the T25 automatically will return to the GPS location from which it began its flight. The drone also automatically returns home if it’s battery begins to run low.

Geo-Fencing

With geo-fencing, you can set GPS boundaries for your drone’s flight to prevent it from flying out of range or into an area where drone flight is restricted.

Follow Me

Follow Me is, understandably, a very popular feature. It instructs the drone to follow you and the controller wherever you go. You can use Follow Me to film yourself doing whatever it is you want to capture in a video without worrying about adjusting the drone’s controls.

Draw the Dot

Draw the Dot is a feature of the app rather than a flight feature of the drone. With this feature, the app displays a map, and you draw a line on the map to create the flight path that you want your drone to follow. That is how easily you can create a custom flight path for your Potensic T25.

Assembling and Setting Up the Potensic T25

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Before you can fly the drone, you need to take a few steps to calibrate the gyroscope and GPS, install the Potensic-G software on your phone or tablet, and pair the T25 with the controller and your tablet or smart phone.

Here’s the step by step procedure to follow:

1. If you want to control your drone from your smart phone or tablet, download and install the Potensic-G app from the Apple Store or GooglePlay.2. Turn on the drone and set it on a level surface. The four LED lights on the drone will be blinking red. It’s important for the drone to be sitting absolutely level because it will use the position its gyroscope is in as a reference to judge when it is in a level flying position and when it’s not.3. To pair the drone with the controller, turn the controller on and then push the left joystick up and then down. If the pairing is successful, the lights to the front of the drone will start flashing white while those to the back will start flashing blue.4. To connect your smart phone or tablet, the app, and the T25, go to the Wi-Fi settings on your device and select the network named Potensic-xxx where “xxx” stands for the remainder of the network’s name. This is the Wi-Fi network broadcast by your drone. After selecting the network, open the app interface.5. To initiate the calibration of the drone’s GPS compass, simultaneously push the left joystick to the 1 o’clock position and the right joystick to the 11 o’ clock position. The app will read: “Compass Calibration.” If the calibration starts successfully, the lights on the front of the T25 will alternate flashing red and white while the lights to the back of the drone will alternate flashing red and blue. The calibration of the compass has two parts:a. While keeping the drone level in its normal flying position, pick it up by it’s tail so that the camera is facing away from you and, while holding it out from your body, turn in a circle a full 360 degrees as if the drone was a toy that you are flying while holding it in your hand. The back lights on the drone should turn solid blue.b. Next, hold the drone so that the landing gears point toward you and the camera points toward the ground and, again, turn in a full circle a full 360 degrees. The front lights should turn solid white, and the app should read: “Compass Calibration Okay.” 6. Return the drone to the default/calibrate setting by once again pushing the left joystick to the 1 o’clock position and the right joystick to the 11 o’ clock position. The lights on the drone should return to flashing white in front and blue in back. The app should read either: “Gyroscope is being calibrated” or “Gyroscope okay.” 7. To finalize the calibration, replace the drone on a level surface. The app should read: “Waiting for GPS signal.” The lights on the drone will continue to flash white in front and blue in back until calibration is complete. When the lights on the drone return to solid white in front and solid blue in back, calibration is complete and the drone is ready to fly.

This YouTube video entitled Potensic T25 Unboxing Quadcopter Drone Testing & Review from The Redwood Fisherman shows the unboxing of one of the Potensic T25 drones that was released in 2018. It shows everything that comes with this quadcopter with the exception of the extra battery and the aluminum carrying case available with the one offered here. The video also demonstrates how to perform the minimal level of assembly required, and most importantly, you have the chance to see the Potensic T25 in flight in windy conditions.

The Potensic T25 vs. the Potensic D85

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The Potensic T25 and the Potensic D85 are similar in many ways, but if you are an experienced drone pilot looking for a drone that you can use to expand an interest in drone filming and photography, you’ll find that the D85 is better suited to your needs.

Like the T25, the D85 comes with an HD 1080p camera, but the camera with the D85 has a wide angle field of vision of 130 degrees as compared to 120 degrees for the T25. The gimbal on the D85 dampens vibrations from the drone’s engines for clearer images, and you can easily substitute your sports action camera for the one that comes with the D85. The D85 uses a higher capacity batter than the T25, a 2800mAh Lithium battery as compared to the T25’s 1000mAh battery. The D85 also has a brushless motor that reduces energy consumption and that also allows for faster, quieter flights. Combined, the higher capacity battery and the brushless motor allow the D85 to fly for up to 20 minutes at speeds up to 50 km/h. The D85 also has a greater flight and transmission range than the T25. The controller signal extends to 4,900 feet, and the D85 can transmit images and video back at a range of 1,600 to 2,620 feet.

The Potensic 25 is a versatile camera drone that captures high quality HD 1080p images. By combining GPS Position and Hold and Follow Me, you’ll be able to create custom camera angles for your videos, and Draw the Dot lets you easily create customized flight paths for your T25. If you prefer, you can substitute your own sports action camera for the one that comes with the T25. The main drawbacks are the short flight time of the Potensic 25, and its light weight, which results in some instability at wind speeds of over 20 mph. Potensic has added an extra battery to the package, and you can buy more batteries to further extend your flight time. While more experienced drone pilots who have become serious about pursuing drone photography and video will probably prefer the Potensic D85, the Potensic 25 is a good, inexpensive drone for learning to fly and capture video and images. You may find that the Potensic 25 is the only video drone you need. If you are looking something a little cheaper and really Potensic then check out this drone!

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